Tag Archives: Joe Diffie

When Pam Tillis found out that Nashville’s Rochelle Center — a facility that helps care for disabled adults — hadn’t had a budget increase in 15 years, she was moved to help.

And a run-of-the-mill concert just wasn’t enough for Tillis.

“Hay Y’All! An All-Star Tribute to Hee Haw” will start at 7:30 p.m. March 4 at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Tillis said the show will loosely follow the format of the popular television series offering music interspersed with comedy and even a few original members of the “Hee Haw” cast.

“I just hate to do anything by the book,” she said. “There’s just a lot of regular concerts around town and I thought, ‘Let’s just put a little spin on this.’ It’s a surprise. But to even have some of the original cast members is incredible because so many of them aren’t still with us.”

“It’s going to be pretty amazing,” Tillis said. “We’ve got sets and props. We’re all in. It has been a bear, but I’m inspired to do it. I wanted an event where people would go, ‘Wow.’ I love the idea of giving the audience more than they’ve ever expected out of a concert within our humble budget.”

It has been two decades since Sammy Kershaw scored his first No. 1 song, and the country singer thought it was high time to get back into the studio and freshen up his old hits. Kershaw recently rerecorded radio favorites including “She Don’t Know She’s Beautiful,” “Cadillac Style,” “Queen of My Doublewide Trailer” and others for his new “Big Hits: Volume 1” album.

However Kershaw cautions that the songs are not identical to the original versions.

“After you record, over the years you think, ‘This line, maybe I should have sung the word this way,’” Kershaw said. “There’s a line here or there, but not a huge difference to me. The songs are little clearer and brighter and we’ve moved more into that digital age.”

Country music fans will remember Sammy Kershaw, Joe Diffie and Aaron Tippin from 1990s country radio where individually they had hits including “She Don’t Know She’s Beautiful,” “Ships That Don’t Come In,” and “Kiss This.”

The men hope fans are still hungry for that style of country music because they recently released a collaborative album “All in the Same Boat.” The 12-song collection offers individual songs from each artist as well as songs featuring all three of them.

“It turned out cool and it worked,” Kershaw says of the project. “I’m liking it and I’m hopeful that the fans will get to hear it somewhere. One of the problems us old boys have is that we’re still making new music but nobody gets to hear it because we don’t have slots at radio anymore.”

Fans who want to pick up the album can find “All in the Same Boat” online at Amazon.com and in stores.

The Henningsens kicked off the CMA Block Party Wednesday at Riverfront Park. (photo: Jay Powell / The Tennessean)

The streets were shut down and the rain gave way to the staggering heat and humid weather normally felt during the week of CMA Music Festival. And although the festival doesn’t officially begin until Thursday, there was plenty of activity downtown on Wednesday.

Following the morning’s CMA Fest Kickoff Parade, fans grabbed a spot at Riverfront Park for the annual CMA Block Party, with live music, food and festivities at every corner waiting to be discovered by the first-time CMA fest-goer, the seasoned veteran or maybe even folks who are lost amongst the festival craziness.

Illinois-based family band The Henningsens kicked off the show on the Riverfront Stage with a half-hour set that included the hit “You Lie,” which was written by the group and recorded by The Band Perry. The trio also performed its own current charting single, “American Beautiful.”

To cool off, Wild Bill’s Old Fashioned Soda Shop Co. was serving up sodas by the barrel, the way Grandpa used to have them, complete with a souvenir tin cup to use for refills.

Street musicians perform on Broadway as downtown gears up for CMA Music Festival, which officially begins Thursday. (photo: Jay Powell / The Tennessean)

Riverfront Park was just one of many destinations to find a good time during the afternoon’s block party. Food trucks were stationed along Broadway stretching up to Fourth Avenue. The all-too-familiar “concert” smell — that oddly satisfying mixture of sweat, Bud Light and anticipation wrapped up in a cloud of second-hand smoke — clung to the air.

At the Hard Rock Cafe, when guests weren’t cramming into the tent to take in a few minutes of music from the Hard Rock Cafe Stage or planting themselves in front of the industrial-sized fans to cool off, they had the opportunity for the Southern Rock Experience. The area featured photo ops and autograph signings with some of this week’s performers. “American Idol” Season 4 finalist Bo Bice will host a set with special guest star appearances at 9:15 p.m. on Saturday.

Other artists on today’s block party bill included Brazilbilly, The Lacs, Cadillac Three and Joe Diffie, who was set to close the party at 5:10 p.m.

“Alan and Denise Jackson have been friends of Nancy and I for years, so this show wouldn’t be the same without him,” Jones said in a statement. “I am also so grateful that my dear friend Garth Brooks is going to be on stage with me. I am not sure who will be crying more, me or him.”

The show was previously announced as sold-out but a limited number of seats located behind and beside the stage have been released this week; those tickets will go on sale 10 a.m. Friday through Ticketmaster, 1-800-745-3000.

Also, The Tennessean is giving away two free tickets to the show. Enter to win by sharing this video on social media, tagging with #TNGeorgeJones and liking our TN Music News on Facebook.

Jason Aldean celebrated “Take a Little Ride” and “The Only Way I Know,” his sixth and seventh consecutive No. 1 songs, today with parties at both BMI and ASCAP.

He says each song’s success is sentimental for a different reason.

“‘Take a Little Ride’ and the fact it went to No.1, that was big just because it was the first single from a new album and you want to get your new album off to a good start,” Aldean explains. “That got us rolling pretty good. And the fact that ‘The Only Way I Know’ is No. 1 is really cool because I get to share that with Luke and Eric, which will probably never happen again as far as the three of us being on a song together. (Luke Bryan and Eric Church are featured on the tune.) Having two of your friends on a song with you and have it go No. 1, it will be that from now on. It’s one of the reasons it will always stand out.”

Aldean’s new single “1994” also features a fellow country singer. Joe Diffie is name-checked in the lyrics, and Aldean predicts it’s going to be wildly popular with his fans.

“I think that’s one of those songs that’s infectious where in a month or so every person in the room will be chanting Joe Diffie’s name, which is the point,” he says.

The singer is also looking for ways to include Diffie, whose hits include “John Deere Green” and “Pickup Man,” in the success of “1994.”

“We want to do it where it’s not so much of an obvious thing,” Aldean says. “It’d be obvious to have him in a video. I would love to make it a little cooler than that. We’ve been bouncing some ideas around.”

Songwriter Danny Morrison, who penned notable country songs including Kenny Rogers’ “Blaze of Glory” and Joe Diffie’s “Is It Cold In Here,” died Feb. 14 after suffering a heart attack.

An industry veteran, Mr. Morrison was raised in Nashville and attended East High. He produced and managed country star Joe Diffie, and his songs were recorded by artists including Alabama, Lee Greenwood and Johnny Paycheck.

“You were truly one of a kind,” wrote executive, musician, songwriter and producer Tim DuBois, on Mr. Morrison’s Facebook page. “A lover of songs and writers.”

In addition to his songwriting acumen, Mr. Morrison was known as a jovial and affable Music Row presence. He and close friend Johnny Slate (co-writer of “Blaze Of Glory”) wrote a book together called Song Writing From The Inside/Out.

A wide range of performers — from Clint Eastwood to Jimmy Buffett to Emmylou Harris — is paying tribute to the favorite son of Hannibal, Mo.

The CD Mark Twain: Words & Music, available now, tells the beloved author’s story in spoken word and song, with Garrison Keillor narrating. Eastwood is the voice of Twain. Buffett is the voice of Huckleberry Finn.